"O My Lord," the young man said, "my case is marvellous, and Perhaps you will desire me to relate it in order continuous;" and the Sultan said, "Let me hear it."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then her sister Dunyazad said, "How sweet and tasteful is your tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!" She said, "And where is this compared with what I would relate to you on the coming night if the Sovran permits me to survive?"
Now when it was the next night and that was
The Three hundred and Fifty fifth Night
DUNYAZAD said to her, "in God's name, O my sister, If you be other than sleepy, finish for us your tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It has reached me,the director, the right guiding, lord of the counsel which is benefiting and of deeds fair seeming and worthy celebrating, that the second youth said: O my lord the Sultan, I am by calling a merchant man and none of the guild was younger, I having just entered my sixteenth year. Like my fellows I sold and bought in the Bazar every day till, one day of the days, a damsel came up to me and drew near and handed to me a paper which I opened; and behold, it was full of verses and odes in praise of myself, and the end of the letter contained the woman's name professing to be enamoured of me. When I read it I came down from my shop board, in my folly and ignorance, and putting forth my hand seized the girl and beat her till she swooned away. After this I let her loose and she went her ways and then I fell into a brown study saying to myself, "Would Heaven I know whether the girl be without relations or if she have kith and kin to whom she may complain and they will come and bastinado me."
And, O our lord the Sultan, I repented of what I had done whenas repentance availed me nothing and this lasted me for twenty days. At the end of that time as I was sitting in my shop according to my custom, behold, a young lady entered and she was sumptuously clad and sweetly scented and she was even as the moon in its fullness on the fourteenth night. When I gazed upon her my wits fled and my sane senses and right judgment forsook me and I was incapable of attending to anything save herself. She then came up and said, "O youth, have you by you a variety of metal ornaments?" and i said, "O my lady, of all kinds you can possibly require." Hereupon she wished to see some anklets which I brought out for her, when she put forth her feet to me and showing me the calves of her legs said, "O my lord, try them on me." This I did. Then she asked for a necklace and I produced one when she unveiled her bosom
The Second Lunatic. 51 and said, "Take its measure on me:" so I set it upon her and she said, "I want a fine pair of bracelets," and I brought to her a pair when, extending her hands and displaying her wrists to me she said, "Put them on me." I did so and presently she asked me, "What may be the price of all these?" when I exclaimed, "O my lady, accept them from me in free gift;" and this was of the excess of my love to her,and my being wholly absorbed in her. Then I said to her, "O my lady, whose daughter are you?" and she said, "I am the daughter of the Shaykh al Islám." I replied, "My wish is to ask you in marriage of your father," and she rejoined, " 'Tis well: but, O youth, I would have you know that when you ask me from my sire he will say, 'I have but one daughter and she is a cripple and deformed even as Satíh was.' Do you, however, make answer that you are contented to accept her and if he offer any remonstrance cry, 'I'm content, content!'" I then enquired, "When shall that be?" and she replied, "Tomorrow about undurn hour come to our house and you will find my sire, the Shaykh al-Islam, sitting with his companions and intimates.
Then ask me to wife." So we agreed upon this counsel and on the next day, O our lord the Sultan, I went with several of my comrades and we repaired, I and they, to the house of the Shaykh al-Islam, whom I found sitting with sundry Grandees about him. We made our salams which they returned and they welcomed us and all entered into friendly and familiar conversation. When it was time for the noon meal the tablecloth was spread and they invited us to join them, so we dined with them and after dinner drank coffee. I then stood up saying, "O my lord, I am come here to sue and solicit you for the lady concealed and the pearl unrevealed, your daughter." But when the Shaykh al-Islam heard from me these words he bowed his head for awhile groundwards Then her sister Dunyazad said, "How sweet is your story,
O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" She said, "And where is this compared with what I would relate to you on the coming night, if the Sovran permits me to survive?"
Now when it was the next night and that was
The Three hundred and Fifty sixth Night
DUNYAZAD said to her, "in God's name, O my sister, If you be other than sleepy, finish for us your tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It has reached me,the director, the right guiding, lord of the counsel which is benefiting and of deeds fair seeming and worthy celebrating, that the youth resumed: Now when the Shaykh al-Islam heard from me those words he bowed his brow groundwards for a while in deep thought concerning the case of his daughter who was a cripple and wondrously deformed. For the damsel who had told me of her had played me a trick and served me a sleight, I all the time knowing nothing about her guile. Presently, he raised his head and said to me, "By God, O my son, I have a daughter but she is helpless." I said, "I am content;" and he said, "If you take her to wife after this description, 'tis on express condition that she be not removed from my house and you also will pay her the first visit and cohabit with her in my home." I replied, "I hear and I obey;" being confident,that she was the damsel who had visited my shop and whom I had seen with my own eyes.
Thereupon the Shaykh al-Islam married his daughter to me and I said in my mind, "By God, is it possible that I am become master of this damsel and shall enjoy to my full her beauty and loveliness?" But when night fell they led me in procession to the chamber of my bride; and when I beheld her I found her as hideous as her father had described her, a deformed cripple. At that moment all manner of cares mounted my back and I was full of fury and groaned with grief from the core of my heart; but I could not say a word, for that I had accepted her to wife of my own free will and had declared myself contented in presence of her sire. So I took seat silently in a corner of the room and my bride in another, because I could not bring myself to approach her, she being unfit for the carnal company of man and my soul could not accept cohabitation with her. And at dawntide,
The Second Lunatic. 53
O my lord the Sultan, I left the house and went to my shop which I opened according to custom and sat down with my head dizzy like one drunken without wine; when to! There appeared before me the young lady who had caused happen to me that mishap. She came up and salam'd to me but I arose with sullenness and abused her and cried, "Why, O my lady, have you put upon me such a piece of work?" She replied, "O miserable, recollect such a day when I brought you a letter and you after reading it did come down from your shop and did seize me and did trounce me and did drive me away." I replied, "O my lady, please pardon me for I am a true penitent;" and I did not stop to soften her with soothing words and promised her all weal if she would but forgive me. At last she deigned excuse me and said, "There is no harm for you; and, as I have netted you, so will I unmesh you." I replied, "Allah! Allah! O my lady, I am under your safeguard;" and she rejoined, "Hie you to the Aghá of the Janákilah, the gypsies, give him fifty piastres and say him, 'We desire you to furnish us with a father and a mother and cousins and kith and kin, and do you charge them to say of me, This is our cousin and our blood relation.'
Then let him send them all to the house of the Shaykh al-Islam and repair there himself together with his followers, a party of drummers and a parcel of pipers. When they enter his house and the Shaykh shall perceive them and exclaim, 'What's this we've here?' let the Agha reply, 'O my lord, we be kinsmen with your son in law and we are come to gladden his marriage with your daughter and to make 'merry with him.' He will exclaim, 'Is this your son a gypsey musician?' and do you explain, saying, 'Aye, truly I am a Jankali;' and he will cry out to you, 'O dog, you are a gypsey and yet durst you marry the daughter of the Shaykh al-Islam?' Then do you make answer, 'O my lord, 'twas my ambition to be ennobled by yours alliance and I have espoused your daughter only that the mean name of Jankali may pass away from me and that I may be under the skirt of your protection."' at this, O my lord the Sultan, I arose without hesitation and delay and did as the damsel bade me and agreed with the Chiefs of the Gypsies for fifty piastres. On the second day about noon lo and behold! all the Janákilah met before the house of the Shaykh al-Islam and they, a tom toming and a piping and a dancing, crowded into the courtyard of the mansion.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then her sister Dunyazad said, "How sweet and tasteful is your tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!" She said, "And where is this compared with what I would relate to you on the coming night if the Sovran permits me to survive?"
Now when it was the next night and that was
The Three hundred and Fifty seventh Night
DUNYAZAD said to her, "in God's name, O my sister, If you be other than sleepy, finish for us your tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It has reached me,the director, the right guiding, lord of the counsel which is benefiting and of deeds fair seeming and worthy celebrating, that the youth continued: — So the Janákilah entered the house of the Shaykh al-Islam all a drumming and a dancing. Presently, the family came out and asked, "What is to do? And what be this hubbub?" The fellows answered, "We are gypsey folk and our son is in your house having wedded the daughter of the Shaykh al-Islam." Hearing these words the family went up and reported to its head, and he, rising from his seat, descended to the courtyard which he found full of Jankalis. He enquired of them their need and they told him that the youth, their kinsman, having married the daughter of the house, they were come to make merry at the bride feast. the Shaykh said, "This indeed be a sore calamity that a gypsey should espouse the daughter of the Shaykh al-Islam. By God, I will divorce her from him." So he sent after me, O our lord the Sultan, and asked me saying, "What is your breed and what will you take
The Sage and the Scholar. 55 to be off with yourself?" I said, "A Jankali; and I married your daughter with one design namely to sink the mean name of a gypsey drummer in the honour of connection and relationship with you." He replied, " 'Tis impossible that my daughter can cohabit with you: so up and divorce her." I rejoined, "Not so: I will never repudiate her." Then we fell to quarrelling but the folk interposed between us and arranged that I should receive forty purses for putting her away. And when he paid me the moneys I gave her the divorce and took the coin and went to my shop, rejoicing at having escaped by this contrivance. On the next day, behold, came the damsel who had taught me the sleight and saluted me and wished me good morning. I returned her salam and indeed, O our lord the Sultan, she was a model of beauty and loveliness, stature and symmetrical grace and my heart was enmeshed in her love for the excess of her charms and the limpid flow of her speech and the sweetness of her tongue. So I said to her, "And when this promise?" and she said, "I am the daughter of Such and such, a cook in such a quarter; and do you go ask me in marriage of him." So I rose up with all haste and went to her father and prayed that he would give her to me. And presently I wedded her and went in unto her and found her as the full moon of the fourteenth night and was subjugated by her seemlihead. Such, then, is the adventure which befell me; but, O my lord the Sultan, the Story of the Sage Such an one and his Scholar is more wonderful and delectable; for indeed 'tis of the marvels of the age and among the miracles which have been seen by man. Thereupon the Sovran bade him speak, and the Second Lunatic proceeded to recount the